This invention relates to a method and system for performing predictive maintenance on equipment.
Equipment refers to any device, apparatus, machine, electronics, or assembly that requires maintenance or provides improved performance or greater longevity upon receipt of such maintenance. Equipment means any mechanical equipment, any electrical equipment, any data processing system, any electronics or optical equipment, any software associated with mechanical equipment, electrical equipment, electronic equipment or a data processing system. A component may represent a part, an assembly of parts, a subassembly of a part, an element, or another constituent of a equipment.
Mechanical equipment refers to a machine or machinery that is formed of a defined arrangement of multiple components (e.g., parts). Mechanical equipment includes heavy equipment and capital-intensive equipment that is movable or fixed. Mobile mechanical equipment includes airplanes, busses, locomotives, ships, cranes, heavy trucks, earth-moving equipment, or the like. Fixed mechanical equipment includes electrical power generators, industrial presses, manufacturing equipment, or the like.
In the context of software as the equipment, maintenance may include installation of a software update or revision that improves the performance of the equipment or an associated physical process. The performance improvement may entail improving the execution speed of calculations performed by the software or eliminating a bug in the software. The software (e.g., avionics software) may control mechanical components of equipment that includes both software and mechanical components to reduce wear or stress on the mechanical components that are subject to a physical process or to improve the responsiveness of the entire system to new or existing inputs.
A configuration defines the identity of the components (e.g., parts), a specification of the components, and the relationship among the arrangement of components of the equipment, among other things. The configuration of equipment may vary throughout a life span of the equipment as maintenance work (e.g., maintenance, repair, and overhaul work) is performed.
The operator or owner of the equipment may operate the equipment with a reactive maintenance program that involves performing repairs only after a failure of a component has occurred or is imminent. Thus, the operator or owner of the equipment may suffer from unscheduled and unpredictable downtime of the equipment necessary to make repairs or perform maintenance. The downtime may translate into reduced revenue for business operations or reduced levels of customer satisfaction for customers that rely on the proper operation and availability of the equipment. Thus, a need exists to reduce downtime of the equipment to gain efficient utilization of the capital resources represented by the equipment as well as to perform maintenance during the lowest usage periods of the equipment.
Moreover, replacement components may be ordered upon a failure of the equipment, which increases the cycle time for maintenance, repair, and overhaul operations. For example, the operator of equipment may have a purchasing team that procures replacement components and supplies necessary for routine maintenance after a failure of a component has occurred. Maintenance workers and skilled technicians may be fully booked with other maintenance, repair, and overhaul projects when an unexpected equipment failure requires maintenance activity. Thus, a need exists for improving the availability of components and maintenance workers associated with the performance of maintenance activities.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a data processing system stores a first database of component data on components of equipment. The data processing system stores a second database of maintenance personnel associated with corresponding qualifications. The data processing system associates at least one predictive maintenance factor (for a component) with the corresponding component data. A scheduler schedules maintenance for a maintenance time period for at least one of the components based on the first database, the second database, the associated predictive maintenance factor, and an elapsed time with respect to an installation date of at least one component. The predictive maintenance factor may be defined by one or more of the following: a longevity estimate, a probability of failure, a financial estimate on maintenance of a component, a known down time period of the equipment, a known linkage of a predicted maintenance task to other maintenance tasks, or similar conditions.